Thanks :)

If it helps that's where Fix an Object came from - and Crafty is also the stat that underlies Read A Person.

Just thought I'd reproduce most of a comment I made on the Storygames forums because I've deliberately buried the lede in the mechanics, and for comments should make it more obvious what I'm doing even if the players aren't always meant to find out.

The core of Hunger Games is about both how people crack but keep going under horrible pressure, and about finding humanity in the midst of truly awful situations.  <em>Panem</em> is intended to do that when played with everyone as Tributes (team play is a much more superficial game and intended in part to bury the intended game that much deeper).

If I've got things right (and I know it'll take fine tuning), the driver to the game is stress. Stress, people breaking down, and how they are pushed and how they crack under pressure. The stress track is meant to look relatively mild and in practice to really break the characters down - but in the opening session they should be used to being able to spend stress almost freely. I might need more teeth behind the pressure valves, but that's where that hook is. Breaking them down (note that the only stat that doesn't take a hit on one is Strong, which is incredibly valuable in the arena but almost useless outside).

The finding humanity in the midst of horrible things has two drivers. First no Tribute can win on their own. That's part of the purpose behind the Pack, and the District 2 Tribute rules. You need allies. Allies in the midst of that, who could cut your throat in your sleep, when the explicit rules say that only one can win. Second, I'm trying to point the game that way by what the Tributes can't do. Tributes explicitly have no access to the "Read another person" move until a long time into the game. There is quite literally no mechanical way for one Tribute to know they can trust another. You have to roleplay it out. (The only exception being the 7-9 Aid Other: Expose yourself to truth). Finally, with two surviving PCs, the Hunger Games end with a cross between Prisoner's Dilemma and chicken.

So we have a game that looks like a PvP game that you can not win by playing pure PvP - so you need to trust another person but have no mechanical ability to do so. Your only possible choice if you are playing to win is to roleplay it out. The humanity. The trust in the midst of the horrible situation. And either the trust to the last, each being willing to die for the other, or the final betrayal.

Specifically, I'm looking at two sets of personality attributes, GUTsiness/CAUtion and HARdness/COMpassion. My first thought is something like "When stat A reaches +2, stat B is reduced to +1 if higher and cannot raise above +1; when stat A reaches +3, stat B is reduced to 0 if higher and cannot raise above 0."  (So a character who is maximally gutsy will be somewhat in cautious, and a very compassionate character will be less able to do what needs to be done).

That's a setting conceit, not a versimilitude one.  There are enough examples of compassionate characters in fiction getting the will to do what needs to be done from that compassion.  See, for example, Molly Weasley being the one to kill Bellatrix Lestrange.  Also:

     If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you are going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
    They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
    So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.

It feels like a rule that is both fiddly and unnecessary to me as a general rule.

Thanks :D  Always nice to have encouragement - especially from people who want to play and playtest!

I've made my first three ever attempts at skins in the past week and thought I'd both show them off and ask how they could be further improved.

First up: If I were a Deep One - the first skin I ever wrote.  The premise of this skin is that you've heard about the evils of Deep Ones all your life, and how they are evil and in league with the Old Ones.  And you've just discovered you are one.  Naturally you're terrified about anyone finding out.  It was prompted by my spotting how weak the closet is in all the games I've played (I absolutely think this is a missing piece of Queer content for many game styles).

Next up: The Gorgon - a skin about social awkwardness, phobia, and dysfunction.  The fundamental feature of The Gorgon is that they can't meet anyone's eyes without slowly petrifying them.  And I'm especially pleased with the sex move here.  I posted this to one of my local groups - within three hours there'd been a game set up because someone wanted to play it that badly.

Finally the skin I started working on today: The Kitsune.  I know there are other skins out there called the Kitsune - if only one I wouldn't have used it, but I know of three and think there's a fourth.  At that point an all-Kitsune game becomes possible...  Anyway, the Kitsune is the Class Clown.  Tools to trick people (with one being taking things too far).  A move to give you 1 forward for corpsing the table as long as you did it while in character.  A phobia and an approach through the sex move, and a darkest self that fits.  It's not as intense as the other two - but the Class Clown skin shouldn't be.  I think it does its job pretty well - but as I say I only wrote it tonight, and there's been no feedback yet.

So these are the first three skins I've written.  All, I think, pretty good - but I'm sure there's room for improvement.  (I've had feedback off Storygames and put all three up on the G+ group).  Any advice?